An advanced directive or living will – It’s important to specify, especially lying flat. Good news if you take action.

There are many advantages to planning ahead. There is nothing more certain than death (and taxes) and it is best to plan ahead for a certainty. In the UK, although the official line is to encourage Living Wills or Advanced Directives (ADs), (The Christie NHS Foundation Trust) very few people actually take the trouble to do one. Facing up to reality is as difficult for us all as individuals as it is for the Politicians running the Regional Health Services so dishonestly…

AD is particularly relevant where a cancer leads to unbearable pain and where the drugs needed to gain control of that pain make the patient virtually unconscious, or in advanced neurodegenerative diseases such as the dementias, MS or Motor Neurone Disease.

About Roger Burns - retired GP

I am a retired GP and medical educator. I have supported patient participation throughout my career, and my practice, St Thomas; Surgery, has had a longstanding and active Patient Participation Group (PPG). I support the idea of Community Health Councils, although I feel they should be funded at arms length from government.
I have taught GP trainees for 30 years, and been a Programme Director for GP training in Pembrokeshire 20 years.
I served on the Pembrokeshire LHG and LHB for a total of 10 years. I completed an MBA in 1996, and I along with most others, never had an exit interview from any job in the NHS!
I completed an MBA in 1996, and was a runner up for the Adam Smith prize for economy and efficiency in government in that year. This was owing to a suggestion (St Thomas' Mutual) that practices had incentives for saving by being allowed to buy rationed out services in the following year.